Scanning the Lafayette luncheon notebook

Here are some of the highlight's of this week's Lafayette football luncheon

WHO’S NEXT AT SAFETY? – Coach Frank Tavani would not rule out the possibility of Kyle Simmons playing this week at his strong safety spot, but he didn’t sound all that positive, either. And Shane Black, who started in Simmons’ place last week, is definitely out. “Shane Brady came in and I thought played very well,” Tavani said. “He came up and tackled as well as anyone I’ve seen all year long. He’s been chomping at the bit, playing his role on special teams and waiting for his opportunity. Evan (McGovern) has already had his game off so he can’t take any more games off. I think we’re pretty solid right now.”

GOING GREEN, FOR REAL – The Leopards will be on natural grass this week – for the first time all season. I asked Coach T if he was planning to take the team to a natural grass practice field at some point this week. “No, we’re planning on staying here. My coaches were asking that very question today. I don’t want to say there’s no difference, but to go through what we’d have to go through to do that I’m not sure… we’ll get on their field for well over an hour on Friday. It’s a matter of proper footwear and different cleats. We had kids in the snowstorm with wrong footwear and I asked them, ‘What are you thinking about?' So, this week be sure we have proper stuff. The only thing I miss about grass is grass stains on pants, I always thought that was good. Even if I didn’t play I’d fall down on the grass and get stains and my mom thought I played.”

BRANDON HALL SPEAKS OUT – The 6-7, 225-pound sophomore tight end from Shaker Heights, Ohio, has five catches for 79 yards as Kevin Doty’s backup. About this season, he said, “Sitting 4-5 is obviously not where wanted to be, but ever since we came off the bye week, we’ve been better. During that week Coach T pretty much crushed us. We had full contact practices three straight days, I thought we were back in camp again, Ever since then we’ve had renewed energy. I don’t play every play every game, but after every game, one thing that hurts the most is my throat because I’m screaming so loud, The whole sideline is screaming hard; we have our hearts in it, pulling for our team. We have a renewed sense of energy and passion; hopefully we can keep that up.”

COACH T ON ANDREW SHOOP -- "I have to check his locker, see if he’s taking five-hour energy or something. It’s almost like Andrew is too energized sometimes. He’s still going to do enough things to drive you a little crazy, but I think these guys will attest to his energy and the leadership he’s provided … he doesn’t remember getting sacked or throwing a pick. It’s almost like he doesn’t have the ability to remember, and that’s a good thing. He was the most determined person on the sidelines that we were going to go down the field and win the game in overtime last week. The defense is on the field and he’s up and down and all over.”

RED ZONE IMPROVEMENT – After going 2-for-12 early in the season, Lafayette is 14-for-20 on touchdowns in the red zone over the past four weeks. “Execution, obviously, and the time you put into it.” Coach T said. “We did real live scrimmage time both ways, I don’t remember crushing anybody, but at the end of the day, maybe I should crush ‘em again this week. They sure responded. Real focus … that throw-and-catch from Shoop to Mark Ross (in overtime), cut it out, that’s just making a play. Who coached that up?”

BRANDON HALL ON BEING RECRUITED – “I had offers from Bowling Green, Stony Brook, Elon. Big schools, nice schools, full scholarship schools. When I was talking to my dad and mom about where I wanted to go, we agreed I wanted to go somewhere with a winning tradition and great academic standing. My dad said that if he’s going to have to pay a little more money for that to happen, he would definitely do that. I took a visit here and I liked the coaches, the staff, the players right away.”

HALL ON THE STRENGTH OF HIS GAME -- "I need to gain some weight, but I love blocking. I always thought of that as one of my strong suits. Definitely, blocking bigger guys in college has been harder, but I love blocking and earning the chance to get the ball. I really connect with the O-linemen because we stay with them and we have the same coach. Coach (Stan) Clayton treats us like he treats the other O-linemen. He’s not going to let our footwork be bad on blocking just because we’re tight ends. We watch film with them, we analyze it. It’s really good and beneficial.”

CRUSADER COACH TOM GILMORE ON 14-7 LOSS TO LEHIGH -- "We were very disappointed Saturday and Sunday, but we have a pretty mature team, fairly veteran, very motivated. Our effort was tremendous. The one thing you look for is effort. Too much time, too much effort, too much dedication to let it continue to ride into this week. Our guys have done a tremendous job in past weeks when we’ve come short. We’re five down, four up and we’ll bounce back with a lot of determination and effort. I expect the same this week.”

TURNOVERS, TURNOVERS – Holy Cross turned over the ball six times against Bucknell but still won the game, and the next week, it committed five turnovers in the snow at Georgetown and lost to the Hoyas. I asked Coach Gilmore if he had ever won another game in which he had six turnovers. “Off the top of my head, I cant recall any,” he said. Then at Georgetown, he said that “as the game went on, conditions deteriorated and we dug ourselves an even bigger hole. Early in the season we were able to overcome mistakes but in the Georgetown loss, we didn’t, and the elements made it difficult. Last week, we didn’t turn the ball over, but we weren’t executing at the level we need to beat the No. 8 team in the country. I was proud of our effort; we competed well, but made some mistakes.Our five losses were unbelievably close, and we’ve been right there with them and that’s frustrating for me as a coach because as a coach, when you’re that close you’re capable of winning the game and I think that reflects more on the coach than your players.”